Maybe you saw it mentioned in the materials leading up to PRINT 17. Maybe you’ve seen the term as you went through the exhibitor and educational seminar list. Maybe you’re just seeing it for the first time right now.
Workforce Solutions.
This is a new area on the PRINT 17 show floor, and the goal is to provide attendees with a place to start when it comes to finding and attracting the best young talent. As print gets increasingly more technical, it is competing with a much broader range of industries for the best graduates coming out of universities, trade schools, and training programs across the country. This is a business designed around connecting people to one another through the medium of print, which in turn requires skilled and passionate people to be the driving force behind it. The most advanced presses on the PRINT 17 show floor, after all, still need operators to ensure they run at their best.
To that end, the Workforce Solutions Show Floor Area includes a wide range of companies and institutions dedicated to the cause. They are launching and running training programs for those already in the business, to help build new skillsets. They are reaching out to professionals in other markets, with skills that translate into our industry, to show them that having “ink in your veins” is still very much an exciting career path. And they are partnering with shops and schools across the country to introduce young people who have not yet graduated to present the print and graphics industry as a viable choice for their path forward.
As you walk the show this year, make sure to stop by each of these booths to learn more about their programs, and how they can help your shop grow, by helping you find and retain the best talent in your market.